Apple is trading at an astonishingly low valuation, with a p/e
ratio in single digits, because it has now become that animal
investors like least: a slow-growing tech stock. Either one is
fine on its own, and both slow-growing stocks and fast-growing
tech stocks can support much higher multiples than Apple is seeing
right now. But conservative investors, who like slow-growing
stocks with high dividends, are constitutionally uncomfortable
with the volatility inherent in the tech world. And technology
investors, who are happy taking that kind of risk, want to see
substantial growth. Apple, notwithstanding the fact that it’s one
of the most valuable companies in the world, is falling through
the capital-markets cracks.